The Federal Government has clarified that, it did not rename the Murtala Mohammed Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, after Wole Soyinka.
In a statement signed by Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Rabiu Ibrahim, the government said renaming of the Murtala Mohammed Expressway Way was not contemplated by this administration.
In the bid to clear the record, he explained that on the 4th of June this year, President Bola Tinubu inaugurated a new road in the FCT codenamed Arterial road N20 (from Katampe to Jahi), which links the existing Outer Northern Expressway (also known as Murtala Mohammed Expressway) to the Northern Parkway (also called Ahmadu Bello Way).
“During the inauguration of the N20 (which is a new road), FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, proposed to the President that the road be named after Prof Wole Soyinka, and the President agreed.”
“Therefore, it is the Arterial Road N20 that is named after Prof Soyinka. The Murtala Mohammed Expressway remains unchanged and continues to bear the name of our esteemed former Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed,” he said.
Ibrahim called on all citizens to disregard any misinformation regarding the renaming of the Murtala Mohammed Expressway as the report was entirely false and only exists in the imagination of its purveyors.